New test for special learning disabilities in adults on anvil
The Union government is expected to roll out a new test to diagnose specic learning disabilities (SLDs) in adults in India by the end of the year, government ocials have said, adding that the test is being designed by the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (NIEPID) in Telangana’s Secunderabad.
This comes even as the Supreme Court is in the middle of hearing a writ petition by a former Jawaharlal Nehru University student challenging the absence of such diagnostic methods for testing SLDs in adults, which prevented them from getting disability certicates.
Getting a certicate is imperative in order to claim benets under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, which provides for reservation in government or higher education institutions receiving government aid (5%), and in government jobs (4%).
Left out in 2016
But when SLDs were introduced in the list of disabilities in 2016, it invariably left out people who were adults at the time because the nature of the disorder requires diagnosis at early age.
Senior ocials in the Union Social Justice Ministry said that the new test is being developed by NIEPID and should be ready for a phased rollout by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities
by the end of the year after it has been run against global standards for validation.
While the top court was hearing the matter, the Ministry issued a notication on March 12 revising the guidelines for assessing the extent of the specied disabilities.
The certication requirements for SLDs included a clinical assessment, an IQ assessment and an SLD assessment. The SLD assessment can be done using the NIMHANS battery test or the Grade Level of Assessment Devices (GLAD). This certication begins at the age of 8, followed by repeat certications — once in Class 10, and then in Class 12.
The certicate issued after the nal assessment at the age of 18 or above will be valid for lifetime.